Earlier this month, AT&T passed the 500 mark in the race to expand the number of areas across the country with access to the carrier's 4G LTE network. The effort is ongoing, though, and the company has now officially added several more locales to the list. Customers in areas ranging from the West Coast to the Atlantic Ocean should all now notice faster data speeds when browsing on the go.

It's that time of year when consumers are shown a near overwhelming array of new electronics, and many of them will undoubtedly need to connect to a cellular network in order for the real fun to happen. So AT&T has announced 24 new areas around the continental US that should now have access to 4G LTE speeds, along with two more in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. We have a pretty even spread of markets this time around, with faster connections popping up on both coasts, along with parts of the South, Midwest, and the Rockies.

AT&T continues to pursue an aggressive 4G LTE rollout strategy, activating towers in Missouri, Texas, and North Carolina over the past couple of days for a total of 16 new markets. It's all part of the carrier's larger plan to reach 250 million Americans with LTE coverage by the end of this year. AT&T's LTE network currently covers almost 200 million.

Does anybody remember when Verizon started deploying batches of new LTE markets by the week? Well, it seems that AT&T wants to be in on some of that action. Earlier this month, the second largest carrier launched a string of new sites with the promise of several more to come this summer. As of today, new or expanded coverage came to 20 more locations.

Alabama

Huntsville

Arizona

Phoenix (East Mesa and Sun City)

Tucson (Oro Valley)

Arkansas

Monticello

Mountain Home

Florida

Lake City

Ocala

Louisiana

Shreveport / Bossier City

Michigan

Lansing

Mississippi

Gulfport / Biloxi

New Hampshire

Manchester (Nashua)

North Carolina

Henderson

Pennsylvania

Mechanicsburg

Tennessee

Chattanooga

Texas

Athens

Corsicana

Huntsville

Nacogdoches / Lufkin

Paris

Washington

Centralia

This comes in addition to a 12 other sites that went live over the last couple of weeks.

Ma Bell is still markedly behind Verizon when it comes to total LTE coverage in the United States, but they're catching up quickly. Today AT&T 4G LTE service has been activated for Napa and Santa Rosa-Petaluma, California, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Kalamazoo, Missouri, Orangeburg, South Carolina, and Jackson, Tennessee. The company has also announced expanded markets in New Haven County, Connecticut, Greensboro, North Carolina, Charleston and Walterboro, South Carolina, and the San Francisco Bay area, including parts of San Rafael, Pittsburg, Antioch, Livermore, Brentwood, and Novato.

It can be hard to hear how speedy and wonderful Verizon's 4G LTE is when there isn't a 4G tower within 100 miles of your home. Well, that's about to change for some lucky folks in the western half of the US come December 20. Big Red continues to creep closer to a 100% overlay with its 3G network all the time.

All of the following cities are going to see LTE go live on December 20:

Port Angeles, WA

Port Townsend, WA

Sequim, WA

Kennewick, WA

Pasco, WA

Richland, WA

Klamath Falls, OR

Roseburg, OR

Jackson Hole, WY

Teton Village, WY

Kemmerer WY

Pinedale, WY

Price, UT

Richfield, UT

Lamar, CO

LaJunta, CO

Of course, you need an LTE handset to take advantage of the faster 4G speeds, but most phones Verizon has sold in the last few years are 4G-capable.

Mid-last month, AT&T announced that it would bringing LTE to 12 new markets in "April, May, and into early summer." It appears to be making good on those plans beginning now, as it's going to flip the switch in three new markets on April 8th:

Muncie, IN

Bloomington, IN

Bryan-College Station, TX

This gives AT&T a total of 31 LTE markets now, putting it pretty far behind Verizon's "more than 200 cities."

There's no word as to when it should roll out the rest of the promised markets, but it's nice to see it getting an early start delivering the goods.